ITALY:

A Poem in Six Cantos.

WITH HISTORICAL AND CLASSICAL NOTES.

SELECTIONS FROM CRITICAL OPINIONS.

"Italy is a work of great magnitude, exhibiting the power, no less than the courage, of a Poet conscious of his strength. The immediate design of this elaborate Poem is to describe the author's impressions during a tour in Italy, commencing with the wonders of art in Florence, and then passing on to Rome and Naples, where still greater miracles of beauty tempted him to expand his song. His finest passages-and this Poem abounds with passages of singular splendour-come upon us like the sounds of familiar music borne upon the winds; but, as there are obvious feelings inseparable from the contemplation of such sights, which must arise with greater or less intensity, in proportion to the sensibility of the individual nature, it would have been impossible to produce such a Poem without discovering affinities that are likely to suggest, perhaps, an appearance of imitation, where, in reality, none whatever exists.

"The work is purely the result of the inspiration of the scenes amidst which it was written. The intense love of Nature is everywhere visible, associated with a kindred admiration of those arts which in Italy, more than any other part of the world, must occupy a predominant place in the mind of a Poet. His description of her works of genius have the grace and grandeur of Statues-the delicacy, breadth, and vivid colouring of Pictures; Guido's Aurora, for example,

'While with her roseate fingers she is shaking

Morn from her starry hair!'

leaps into life from the canvass in his eloquent verse; and the Temples of

Pompeii are brought before us with such pictorial fidelity, that they seem to rise out of the grave like objects revealed in the gloom of chaos, by a burst of creative light.

"In all these delineations there is great power, and a feeling of elevation fully commensurate to the vastness of the subjects.

"Even the reflective passages have a rhetorical pomp and grace of diction, which enchain the fancy while they address the thought; and the Poem altogether is one without which no collection of the Poets of our own time can be considered complete."-The Monthly Chronicle.

"This thoughtful and elaborate Poem was composed during a tour made by its Author in Italy in 1834. The journal of the tour was commenced in prose; until the Author, finally urged by the influence of his views of Florentine, Roman, and Neapolitan scenes and arts, resolved on giving his conceptions to the world in their natural form of verse. His descriptions of the masterpieces in the Florentine Gallery, at the commencement, show how well he was qualified for the task. It is evident that Mr. Reade is a poet of a high order. He has graceful language, spirited conception, with powers of Thought constantly awakening and exciting his readers; and he has, in this work, directed them to the most attractive of all subjects."-The New Monthly Magazine.

"To the list of the leading Poets of the age a new name is now added. In such an age of the neglect of Poetry, the publication of a Poem like the present is a cheering meteor in our sphere of literature. The public taste, however morbid, cannot fail to appreciate the merits of Mr. Reade's 'Italy; and no one who has read Childe Harold' should delay the perusal of this noble production, forming an absolute contrast with the gloom-inspiring Muse of Lord Byron.

"When we venture to prophesy that a portion of the fame accorded to Childe Harold' will be surely, however slowly, extended to Italy,'

we utter an impartial opinion, uninfluenced by the dazzling light of a great reputation, and unprejudiced in the favour of him whom popular feeling may deem inimitable. The author of first-rate genius never yet missed his aim, however low the ebb of Poetry might have fallen, however high the tide of prejudice might rise against him; (we have grieved to observe that not a little has been exerted on this occasion ;) and, most surely, the Author of so thoughtful, so comprehensive, so moral, and in very many parts-more especially in the fourth and sixth Cantos-so sublime a Poem as Italy'-will not, or rather cannot, be the first to set the example."-The Monthly Magazine.

"The high elements of Poetry evinced by the author of Italy,' many

years since, in his powerful Drama Cain the Wanderer,' have been matured without being cooled; the fine tone of feeling he then manifested, has been strengthened without losing any of its sweetness; the intense love of Nature which he then displayed, has been taught to worship at new Altars without detriment to its intensity; and he has obtained a more perfect mastery over the flow and expression of versification-so much so, that we have scarcely noticed one rugged line in the six thousand which the work contains.

"The stanzas on the Genius of Death alone, in the first canto, also on the Moses and Antinous, which we have selected in preference to others equally fine, on more known Statues, will show at once the powers of genius and the feeling of the writer. The pictures and descriptions of St. Peter's, Rome, Venice, and perhaps, above them all, of Naples, Vesuvius, and Pæstum, only make us regret we cannot extract from each. Yet we trust it will be enough to engage the lovers of poetic genius to dwell on the whole of this powerful production. Episodes of legends, and other compositions in various verse, are well introduced to break the monotony of the Spenserian stanza; and brilliant passages treat of Milton, Byron, and other luminaries, now living only in their immortal works; whilst history, the arts, the sciences, the passionate taste for natural beauties, and many other graceful features, are profusely displayed in such language, and with such powers, as are only indicated in the brief illustrations to the choice of which we have been unwillingly confined." -Literary Gazette.

"Mr. Reade's Italy may justly be described as the noblest poem that has appeared since the Childe Harold. Partaking of much of the pictorial grandeur of that work, it is pervaded by a wiser philosophy, by a more expanded and cordial sympathy, and a minuter analysis of the influences of the Past upon Imagination. If it be not so gorgeous and exciting-if it be less profound in its delineation of those glorious sights that enter into the subjects of which both, as far as they bear each other company, treat in common-it gives us a nearer view of them, and possesses an air of freshness and of nature that makes a closer approach to the poetical realisation of Truth.

"The reader of this poem cannot fail to be struck by the exquisite beauty and the fidelity of its descriptions of those grand objects—the monuments of Art, and the sublime wonders of Nature-which cover the face of Italy; its historical and classical episodes; its eloquent bursts of feeling, and the consistent morality of its sentiments, which are never darkened by a spirit of scorn or resentment, but which, all throughout, are full of a fine and enlarged humanity.

"The peculiar merit of the work may be referred to the fact that it was

written on the spots it describes, while the power of the scenes was yet strong upon the writer; and that it therefore may be said to convey immediate impressions, printed off at once in the forms of language they inspired at the moment."-Atlas.

6

"In this barren season of our poetical literature, a poem like that which the talented author of Cain the Wanderer' issues to the public, is a truly welcome and valuable gift to all who know how to appreciate sterling Poetry. The most noble trait in this poet's character is, that on every occasion-in the notes as well as in the text-he has borne ample testimony to the greatness of Lord Byron; and by this line of conduct, in a Poem that actually claims the same ground as Childe Harold,' the author ought to have disarmed the prejudices of reviewers, the more so, as the whole tone of thinking and feeling in Italy' is so wholly opposed to the former. In taking leave, after our many extracts, of this the most important publication lately issued from the English press, we can only pronounce it to be one that will not fail to clothe its author's name with those honours which posterity has awarded to the names of our literary men which are preserved to us."-Sherwood's Miscellany.

"We hail with pleasure the re-appearance in the literary world of the author of Cain the Wanderer.' His long silence had made us think that the 'fit audience, though few,' which such Poets as he are destined to find, had failed to satisfy his ambition, and that he had thrown down his pen in disgust, at not attaining that mere popularity which, if he had attained, would have gone nigh to prove that the appreciators of Poetry were hasty in the estimate they had formed of his capacities.

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Every change which time has worked upon the writer is for the better. Whatever he has lost is that which stood in the way of his just appreciation by poetical readers-whatever he has gained is a step in advance towards that goal to which, during half a life, he has been aiming. If his former works displayed the native capacities and aspirations of the Poet, as they are accustomed to work themselves out in the first vigour and wealth of their youthful vitality, this last result presents itself such as we might have expected from the future products of such a root planted in such a soil."-The Courier.

"Mr. Reade has ventured upon one of those bold attempts which can only be justified by success, and if, in this instance, he were disposed to exclaim with a brother bard of antiquity—' Nec cæca meas audacia vires fallat,' every reader of Italy,' provided he were a genuine lover of Poetry, would assure him that the result had fully authorised his not unambitious claim. The admirers of Cain the Wanderer,' a production of the same